The Huron Signal, 1890-3-21, Page 2f'4
4
2
By Capt Charles King, U.S. A.
Autbur ,1 • • Dvsrtav*nr L x(:lf," ••T7z touesee s
La warn*, " • • Meiti n'e Firm,' • int.
Alb -'fiCepyritat, by J B. Lmmenestt Company, Pleiladelpbta,
pdbliebed by epee/ arrangmes.t with theta]
t -laser, when the sergeant sent the re-
Iqutrsd detail be reported to the captain
iV the company ofiloe is Ave minutes:
"The lieutenant's oosspliments and
ka•ks, obut be dos not need the men."
r' The dinner at the oolod'e, quiet as it
era and with only eight at table, was an
alba of almost momentous !importance
to Mr. Hayne. It was the Ant thing of
the kind he had attended in five years,
and though be well knew that it was in-
tended by the cavalry commander more
especially as a I soognition of the services
rendered their suffering men, he could
not but rejoice in the courtesy and tact
with which he was reoeived and enter-
tained. The colonel's wife, the adju-
tant's, and those of two captains away
with the field battalion werethe four ladies
who were there to greet him when, es -
coned by Mr. Blake, be made his appear-
ance. How long -bow very long -it
seemed to him since he had at in the
presence of refined and attractive women
and listened to their gay and animated
chat' They seemed all such good friends,
they made him so thoroughly at home,
and they showed so much tact and ease
that never once did it seem apparent
that they knew of his trouble in his own
and vet there was no actual
avoidance of matters in which the Rifler"
were generally interested.
It was mainly of his brief visit to the
east, however, that they made him talk -
of the operas and theatres he had attended,
the pictures be had seen, the music that
was most popular; and when dinner was
over their hostess led him to her piano,
and he played and sang for them again
and again. His voice was soft and sweet,
and, though it was uncultivated, he sang
with . and grace, playing with,
more skill but less feeling and effect than
be sang. Music and books had been the
solace of lonely years, and he could
easily see that he had pleased them with
iiia songs. He went bome to the dreary
cookery out on Prairie avenue and
,laughed at the howling wind. The bare
grimy walls and the dim kerosene lamp,
,even Sam's unmelodious snore in the
aback room, sent no gloom to ins soul. It
bad been a happy evening. It had cost
nim a hard struggle to restrain the
emotion which he had felt at times: and
when he withdrew, _soon after the
trumpets sounded tattoo, and the ladies
.cell to discussing him, as women will,
there was but one verdict -his manners
were perfect.
But the colonel said more than that
lie had found him far better read than
any other ofloer of his age he had ever
met; and one and all they expressed the
.lope that they might see him frequently.
No wonder it was of import-
ance to him. It was the opening to a
new hfe. It meant that here at least he
Lad met soldiers and gentlemen and their
lair and gracious wives who had wel-
comed him to their homes, and, though
they must have known that a pall of sus-
picion and crime had I his
pest, they believed either that he was in-
nocent of the grievous charge or that his
Tears of exile and suffering had amply
atoned. It was a happy evening indeed
to him; but there was glooht at Capt.
Rayner's.
The captain himself had gone out soon
after tattoo. He found that the parlor
was filled with young visitors of both
sexes, and he was in no mood for merri-
ment. Miss Travers was being welcomed
to the post in genuine army style, and
was evidentiy enjoying it. Mrs. Rayner
was Bitting , in and out of the
parlor with a cloud upon her brow, and
for once in her life compelled to preserve
silence upon the subject up-
permost in her thoughts. She had been
forbidden to speak of it to her husband;
yet she knew he had gone out again with
every probability of needing some one
to talk to about the matter. She could
not well broach the topic in the parlor
because she was not at all sure how
Capt. and Mrs. Gregg of the cavalry
would take it; and they were still then.
She was a loyal wife; her husband's
quarrel was hers and more, too; and she
was a woman of intuition even keener -
than that which we so readily accord the
sex. She knew, and knew well, that a
hideous doubt had been preying for a
long time in her husband's heart of
hearts, and she knew still better that it
would crush him to believe it was even
suspected by any .tete else. Right or
wrong, the one thing fur her to do, she
doubted not, was to maintain the origi-
nal guilt against all comers, and to hese
no opportunity of feeding the flame that
consumed Mr. Hayne's record and repu-
tation. He was guilty -lie must lee
guilty; and though she was a Christian
according to her view of the case -a pil-
lar of the church in matters of public
charity and picturesque conformity te
all the rubric called for in the services,
and much that it did not -she was unre-
lenting in her condemnation of Mr.
Hayne.
To those who pointed out that he heel
made every atonement man could snake
she re ponded with the severity of con-
scious virtue that there could be no
atonement without repentance and no re-
pentance without humility. Mr. Ilayne's
whole attitude was that of ettibh..rn pal IP
and resentment HI. atonement was
that enforced by the unanimous verdict
of his comrades, and even if it were so
that he had more than made amends for
tin crimp the rules that held good for
sedlnery sinners were not applleable to
ms officer of the army. He must be a
man above e.eptcfo., Incapable of wrong
rir fraud, and aside stani.d he was for-
e.!,.dibble as a seatless... It was a
THE HURON SIGNAL FRIDA:, MAR. 21. WO.
--�--- - - . ser•
Isubject on which she waxed declasnatory
rather too often, dna the youngsters of
her own regiment wearied of it. As Mr.
Foster once expressed it in speaking of
this very case. "Mrs. Rayner can talk
more charity and show less than any
woman I know." So long as her talk wan
aimed against any lurking tendency of
their own to look upon Hayne as a posh -
hie martyr, it fell at times of unapprecia•
-
..a.c ours, oto mime was tants to see it and
to choose her hearers; but Isere was a new
phase -one that might rouse the latent..
' prit de corps of the Ititlers-and slue was
bent on striking while the iron was hot.
U anything would provoke unanimity of
action and sentiment in the regiment,
this public recognition by the cavalry,
in their very presence, of the roan they
cut as a criminal was the thing of all
others to do it., and she meant to bead
the revolt.
Possibly Gregg and his modest help-
meet discovered that there was some-
thing she desired to "spring" upon the
meeting. The others present were all of
the infantry; and when Capt. Rayner
simply glanced in, spoke hurried good
evenings, and went as hurriedly out
again. Gregg was sure of it, and marched
his wife away. Then came Mrs. Ray-
ter's ty:
"If it were not Capt. Rayner's house,
I could not have been even civil to Capt..
Gregg. You heard whet be said at the
club this morning, I suppose?"
In ane form or another, indeed, almost
had beard. The ofncers pres-
ent 1 an I silence.
Miss Travers looked reproachfully at her
flushed sister, but to no purpose. At
last one of the ladies remarked:
"Well, of course I heard of it, but -
I've heard so many different versions.
It seems to have grown t since
morning."
"It sounds just like him, however,"
said Mrs. Rayner, "and I made inquiry
before speaking of it. Ile said he meant
to invite Mr. Hayne to his house to -mor-
row evening, and if the infantry didn't
like it they could stay away."
"Well, now, Mrs. Rayner," protested
Mr. Foster, "of course none of us heard
what he said exactly, but it is my expe-
rience that no . was ever re-
peated without being . 1, and
I've known old Gregg for ever so long,
and never heard him say a sharp thing
yet. Why, he's the mildest mannered
fellow in the whole -th cavalry. He
- would never get into such a snarl as that
would bring about him in five minutes."
"Well, he said be would do just as
the colonel did, anyway -we have that
straight from cavalry authority -and
we all know what the colonel has done.
He has chosen to honor Mr. Hayne in
the presence of the officers who de-
nounce him, and practically defies the
opinion of the Riflery."
••But, Mrs. Rayner, I did not under-
stand Gregg's remarks to be what you
- say, exactly. Blake told me that when
asked by whether he was go-
ing to call on Mr. Hayne, Gregg simply
replied he didn't know -he would ask
the colonel."
"Very well. That means he proposes
to be guided by the clone 1, or nothing
at all: and Capt. Gregg is simply doing
what the others will do. They say to us
in so many words: 'We prefer the so-
ciety of your bete noire to your own.'
That's the way I look at it," said Mrs.
Rayner, in deep excitement.
It was evident that, though none were
prepared to indorse so extreme a view,
there was a strong feeling that the colo-
nel had put an affront upon the Riters
by his open welcome to Mr. Hayne. He
had been exacting before, and had caused
a good deal of growling among the offi-
cers and comment among the women.
They were ready to find fault, and here
was strong provocation. Mr. Foster was
a youth of unfortunate and
propensities. He should have held his
tongue instead of striving to stem the
tideI.
" don't uphold Hayne any more than
you do, Mrs. Rayner, but it seems to me
this is a case where the colonel has to
make some of Mr.
Hayne's conduct"—
"Very good. Let him write him a
letter, then, thanking him in the name
of the regiment, but don't pick him up
like this in the face of ours," interrupted
one of the junkies, who was seated near
Mies Travers (a wise stroke of policy;
Mn. Raynor invited him to breakfast),
and there was a chorus of approbation.
"Well, hold on a moment," said Foster.
"Hasn't the colonel had every one of us
to dinner more or less frequently?" .
"Admitted, But what's to do with its
"ifasn't he invariably invited each
officer to dine with him in every case
where an officer has arrived?
"Granted. Hut what then?"
"If he broke the rule or precedent in
Mr. l layne s case would he not practic-
ally Ise saying that he indorsed the views
of time court martial as opposed to these
of the department ler, Gen.
Sherman. the secretary of war, the presi-
dent of the United"—
"Oh, snake tout your transfer papery
Foster. Vela ought to be in the cavalry
Or some other disputatious branch of the
service," burst in Mr. Graham.
"i declare. Mr. Foster, I never thought
you would abandon your colors," said
Mn. Rayner.
"i haven t, madam, and you've no
right to say so," said Foster, indigaa fly.
"1 isrply bold that any attempt Mwork
up a ergime.tal row out of Stile thheg
will mate bad infinitely .roes,, sad i
deprecate the whittle Waimea',
-1 supper yes •nute to tannate that
Capt. lfffems"s position and that of the
now-- M see -au wru g --.that Mr.
Bayne has hees persecuted," said Mrs
iea Rayner, with trembling lips and Meeks
,. 1lq•sr. you are majna. say
poor lbMr. "I ought not to have ea-
dsr`ioew to etpr}aia or defend eel -
at, perhaps. but I am mot oyal
to my regiment or ny odors. What I
want is to prevent further trouble; and
I know that aaythiag like a ooncersed
resentment of the ooiesd'' invitation
will lead to Infinite harm."
"You may cringe and bow and bear It
if you shoos; you may humble yourself
to such a piece of insolence, but rest an
sured there are plenty of men and woam
en in the Riders who won't bear it, Mr.
Foster, and for one 1 won't." She had
_ risen to her full height now, and her
eyes were blazing. -For his own sake I
trust the mama will omit our names
from the next entertainment he gives.
Nellie sha'n't"-
- "Oh, think, Mrs. Rayner," interrupted -
- one of the laetfea, "they must give her a
dinner or a reception."
"Indeed they shall not! I refuse to
enter the door of people who have in-
sulted my husband as they have."
- -Hush! Listen!" said Mr. Graham,
springing toward the door.
There was silence an in-
stant.
"It is nothing but the trumpet sound-
ing tap," said Mrs. Rayner, hurriedly.
But even as she spoke they rose to
Their feet. Muffled cries were heard,
norm in on the night wind -a shot, then
another, down in the valley -the quack
peal of the cavalry trumpet.
"It isn't taps. It's fire!" shouted Ora -
tam from the doorway. "Come on!"
(
v
CHAPTER V.
i-
2 tie Oct knelt sobbing add terrified.
'Down in the valley south of the post a
broad glare was already shooting up-
ward and illuminating the sky. One
among a dozen little shanties and log
- houses, the homes of the lar Anises; of
the garrison and collectively known ae
Sudsville, was a mass of flames. There
was a rush of officers across the parade,
and the men, , the alarum of
the trumpet and the shots and shouts of
the sentries, came tearing from their
quarters and plunging down the hill.
Among the first on the spot came the
young men who were of the party at
('apt. Rayner's. and Mr. Graham was
ahead of them all. It was plain to the
most .. . 1 eye that there was
hardly anything left to save in (Jr about
the burning shanty. All efforts must be
directed towards preventing the spread
of the flames to those adjoining. Half
clad women and children were rushing
about, shrieking with fright and excite
meat, and a few men we -re engaged in
dragging household goods and furniture
from those tenements not yet reached by
the flames. Fire apparatus there seethed
to be none, though squads of men speed-
ily appeared with ladders, axes and
buckets, brought from the different cow-
iany quarters, and the arriving officers
quickly formed the bucket dines, and
water dipped from the icy creek began
to fly from hand to hand. Befare any-
thing like this was fairly uncle{moray, a
scene of semi -tragic. inten-
sity had been enacted in the presence of
a rapidly gathering audience. "It was
worth more than the price of
to hear Blake tell it afterwards," said
the officers, later.
A tall, angular woman, frantic with
excitement and terror, was dancing about
in the broad glare of the burning hut. I
tearing her hair, making wild rushes at
the flames from time to time as though •
intent on dragging out some prised oh ' I
lent that was being .. before her
eyes, and all the time keeping up a vol-
ley of udaleelictiens and abuse in lavish ' t
Hibernian, apparently directed ata cow-
ering object who sat in limp I o
upon a little heap of firewood, swaying
from side to side and evening stupidly
through the scon•bed atel grimy hands
in which his face was holden. His cloth-
ing was still smoking in places; his hair. ,
and beard were singed to the roots; he d
wagevidently seriously injured, end the '
sympathizing soldiers who had gatheredr si
around him after deluging him with '
snow and water were striving to get him
to arise and go with them to the hospital.
h
A little girl, not ten years old, knelt so ;
Ging and terrified by his side. t+he, too, i
ware,n•hevl and singed. and the sol- k
e*n
Biers lied thrown rough blankets about
her; but it was for her father, not her- '
t irel voice o'erssatflsrthg all other
The e Orisons efforts of the rtes,
Ahmedby 000l headed officers, Boos
wore heat back the flames that we threateu-
lng the neighboring sheaths. and leveled
to the ground w hat re smiled of Private
taswcy's boas. The Are was et niched
alined as rapidly as it bean, but the
torrent of Mrs. Clancy's ebgusaoe was
shit undimmed. The ad jursti ns of
sympathetic sisters to "Horid yep
whist," the authoritative admonition of
some old sergeant to "Stop your infernal
noise," and the half maudlin ydt appeal-
ing glances of her suffering lord were al
insufficient to check her.
It was not until the quiet totes of the
colonel were beard that she began to
cool down: "We've had enough of this,
Mea Clancy; be still, now, or we'll have
to send you to the hospital in the coal
cart" Mrs. Clancy knew that the colonel
was a num of few words, and believed
him to be one of lees sentiment. She was
afraid of him, and concluded it time to
cease threats and abuse and come down
to the more effective role of wronged and
suffering womanhood -a feat which she
accomplished with the consummate ease
of long practice, for the rows in the
Clancy household were mutters of garri-
son notoriety. The surgeon, too, had
come, and, after quick examination of
Clancy.* condition, had directed him to
be taken at once to the hospital; and
thither his little daughter insisted on
following him, despite the efforts of
some of the women to detain her and
dress her properly.
Before returning to his quarters the
colonel desired to know something of the
origin of the tire. There was testimony
enough and to spare. Every woman in
Sudsville had a theory to express and
was eager to be heard at once and to the
exclusion of all others. It was not until
be had summarily ordered them to go to
their homes and not come near him that
the colonel managed to get a clear state-
ment from some of the men.
Clancy had been away all the evening,
drinking as usual, and Mrs. Clancy was
searching about Sudsville as much for
sympathy and listeners as for him. Lit-
tle Kate, who knew her father's haunts,
had guided him home and was striving
to get him to his little sleeping corner
before her mother's return, when in his
drunken I lie fell against the
table, the kerosene lamp,
and the curtains were all aflame in an
instant It was just after taps --or o'clock-whenIQ
aroused
Kate's shrieks
the inmates of Sudsville and started the
cry of "Fire." The flimsy structure of
pine boards burned like so much tinder,
and the child and her stupefied father
bad been dragged forth only in time to
save their lives. The little one, after
giving the alarm, had rushed again into
the house and was tugging at his sense-
less form when rescue carte for both--
none toe aeon.
As for Mrs. Clancy, at the first note of
danger she had rushed . , to the
spot, but only in time to see the whole
interior ablaze and to bowl frantically
for some man to savemwas
her oney-it as
all in the green box under the bed. For
husband and child she had for the
moment no thought. They were safely
out of the fire by the time she got there,
and she screamed and fought like a fury
against the men who held her backat
when se would have plunged into the
midst of it. It took but a minute for
one or two men to burst through the
flimsy wall with axes, to rescue the
burning box and knock off the lid. It
was a sight to see when the contents
were handed to her. She knelt, wept.
prayed, counted over bill after bill of
smoking, steaming . , until
suddenly recalled to her sense by the
eager curiosity and the remarks of some
of her fellow women. That she kept
money, and a good deal of it, in her
quarters had long been suspectedand as
fiercely denied: but no one had dreamed
of such a sum as was revealed.
In her frenzy she had shrieked that
the savings of her lifetime were burning
-that there was over three thousand
dollars in the box; but she hid her treas-
ure and gasped and I and
swore she war talking "wild like." • •They
was nothing but twos and wane." she
vowed; yet there were women there who
declared that they had seen tens and
twenties as she hurried them through
her trembling fingers, and Sudsville gos-
siped and talked for two hours after she
poor
led away, still moaning and shiver -
ng, to the bedside of Clancy-, who
waitthethe miserable causeof it all. The
colonel listened to the stories with such
atience as could be accorded to wit-
nesses who desired to give
to their personal exploits in subduing
he flames and rescuing lifo and prop-
e
rty. it was not until he and the group
f officers with bins had been engaged
some moments in taking testimony that
something was elicited which caused a
new seriatim.
It was not by the united efforts of Suds-
ille that t Laney and Kate had been
ragged from the flames, but by the in -
lie -ideal dash and determination of a
ogle man; there was no discrepancy
mere, for the ten or a dozen who were
wildly ruching about the house made no
.Hurt to burst into it until a young soldier
eaped through their midst into the blas-
ng doorway, was seen to throw a blan-
et over some object within. and the
next minute appeared again, dragging a
sal, through the flames. Then they
mad sprung to his aid, and between them
Kateand "the ould man" were lifted into
lie open air. A moment later he had
ended Mrs. Glancy her packet of money, .
and they hadn't seem him since. Ile -
as an ofl{cer, said they -a new one..
They thought it must he the new Iheutaai-
ant of Company B; and the colonel look -
quickly around and said a few words
o his adjutant, who started up the hill
rthwith. A group of officers and la-
ke were standing at the brow of the
'lateen out of the guard horse, gazing
own upon the scene below, and other
aches, with their escorts, had gathered
in a little knoll skis, by- the road that
lab to Prairie avenue. It was past thee.
hat the adjutant walked rapidly away,
Miring his hurricane lamp in his
head.
"Which way now, HHNngs?" called me
the cavalry Atoms fa the avows
self, she seemed worried to distraction. I
.Same of the women were striving to re-
asssre and comfort her in their homely
fashion, bidding her .-Meer up -the father t
was only stupid from drink, and would
be all right as soon ns "the liquor was cy
off of him." Hut the little one was be-
yond consolation so long as he could not
or would not speak in answer to her en- Pd
treattie•s, t
All tithe time, never pausing for breth, f'
shrieking anathemas on her drunken
spouse, retrenches on her frightened
child, and invocation, to all 111. blessed
saints in heaven to reward the gintls,nan - '
who had saved her hoarded money --a
sessoking packet that she hugged to her •
breast -Mrs. Clancy, "the saynier bison-
dress of Comp uny B," as she had king - ^
styled herself. was pnreel g np and
down through the .snail r crowd bar I a
••O et to Mr. Hny.e's qussien," he
shouted Met. never stopping at aY.
• ilease fall upon the group et mos-
' tion of the .ase. They were the ladies
grow (shpt iaygsrs sad a few of their
hamedhM *istds, All eyes followed
, the terinkl6ttt light es it domed away
u,*u I'd the dMnwtty cell /ode
Them thew wee sadden and Mamie War -
The lamp had comes too stand sail.
was deposited se the ground. sad by Na
dim ray the adjutant could bosom bead-
ing over a dark object that was half sit-
ting, halt reclining at the platform of
1 the shed. Theo came a stout, "Come
here, some of you." And most of the
men ran to the spot.
For a moment nut one word was spoken
in the watching group; theu Miss Trav-
ers' voice was heard:
, W hat can it be? Why do they stop
there"
She felt a sudden hand upon her wrist,
and her sister's lips at her ear:
"Come away, Nellie. I want to go
home. Colder
"But, Kate, I must see what it memo"
"No; come! It's --it's may stento other
drunken wan probably. Come!" And
she strove to lead her.
But the other ladies were curious too,
and all, insensible, were edging over to
the east as though eager to get in sight
of the group. The recumbent object
had been raised, and was seen to be the
dark figure of a man whom the others
began slowly to lead away. One of the
group come running back to them; it
was Mr. Foster.
"Come, ladies; I will escort you home,
as the others are busy."
"lfrh•t it the matter, Mr. Foster?"
was asked by half a dozen voices.
"It was Mr. Hayne- badly bunted. I
fear. He was trying to get home after
lasting saved poor Clancy.
"You don't may sot Oh, isn't there
something we can do? Can't we go that
way and be of some help?" was the eager
petition of more than one of the ladies.
"Not now. They will have the doctor
in a minute. Ile has not inhaled flame;
it is all external; but he was partly blind-
ed and could not find his way. He
called to Billings when he heard him
coming. I will get you all home and
then go back to him. Come!" And, of- -
Tering his arm to Mrs. Rayner, who was
foremost in the direction he wanted to
go -the pathway across the parade -Mr.
Foster led them on. Of course, there
was eager talk and voluble sympathy.
but Mrs. Rayner spoke not a word. The
others crowded around him with ques-
tions, and her silence passed unnoted ex-
cept by one.
The moment they were inside the door
and alone Miss Travers turned to her
sister: "Kate, what was this man's
yes.?'
k.
CHAPTER VI.
•
"! mets the injuries of the fire.'
An unusual state of affairs existed at
the big heepital for several clays. Mrs.
Clancy had refused to leave the bedside
of her beloved Mike. and was permitted
to remain. For a woman who was noto-
rious as a virago and bully. who had
beaten little Kate from her babyhood
and abused and hammered her Michael
until. between her and drink, he was bet
the wreck of a stalwart manhood, Mrs.
Clancy had developed a degree of devo-
tion that was utterly 1. In all
the dozen years of their marital relations
no such trait could be recalled; and yet
there had been many an occasion within
the past few years when Clancy's condi-
tion demanded gentle nursing and close
attention -and never would have got it
but for faithful little Kate. The child
idolized the broken down man, and loved
him with a that his weakne•w
seemed hut to augment a thousandfold, I
while it but served to infuriate her moth-
er. In former years, when ho was Sergt.
Clancy and a fine soldier, many was the
time he had intervened to save her from
an I thrashing: many a time -
had he seized her in his strong arms and
fronted the furious woman with stern .
reproof. Between him and the child
there had been the tenderest love, for t
she was all that was left to him of four.
In the old days Mrs. (;fancy had been
the belle of the soldiers.' bell., a fine.
looking woman, with indomitable pow-
ers as a dancer and conversationalist
and an envied reputation for outshin - -
all her rivals in dress and a 'comment
"She would ruin Clancy, that she e
would," was the unan opinion of
the soldier, wives, host lie seemed to min-
biter to her extravagance with unfailing
good nature for two or three years. Ile
had been prudent, careful of his money,
was a war soldier with hig arrears of
bounty and, tradition had it, a commune c
mate skill in poker. Ile was the money- d
ed man among the sergeants when the'
dashing relict of a brother non.rwnmis- w
sioned officer set her widow's cap for him n
and won. It did not take many years h
for her to wheedle most of his money a
away. hut there was no cessation to the
demand. no apparent limit to the supply, t
Huth were growing elder, and now it bee.
carie evident that Mrs. Clancy was the ifi
elder of the two, and that the artificial-
ity of her charms could not stand the
test of frontier life. No longer sought
as the heile of the soldier"' ball rooms, she
aspired to leadership among their wives
amid families, and was accorded that ars I
anisettes rather than the deem battle
which was ears to follow say ,meal. !Me i
areas* aysncso.a-soars said a ..
and Clancy 'sharable That brow Ike
downward amiss. He took to drink sees
alter his return from • long, hate .ma-
ss's campaign with the dais... Bs
los
his sergeant's stripes mad went into
the ranks.
There came a time whoa the new col-
onel forbade his to ealistma-t in the
cavalry regiment in which he had served
so many • lung year. He had been a
brave and devoted soldier. He had a
good friend in the infantry, be said, who
wouldn't go back on a poor fellow who
took a drop too much at tisee, nod, to
the surprise of many soldiers--omoers
and men -be was brought to the recruit-
ing officer one day, sober, soldierly, amid
trimly dressed, and Capt. Rayner ex-
pressed his desire to have him enlisted
for his company; and it was done. Mrs. -
Clancy was accorded the quarters and
rations of a laundress, as was then the
custom, and for a time --a very short
time -Clancy seamed on the road to pro-
motion to his old grade. The enemy
tripped him, aided by the scolding' and
eburs of his wife, and be never rallied.
Sow., work was found for him around
the quartermaster's shops which saved
him from guard duty or the guard
- house. The infantry ricers and men
-seamed to feel for the poor, broken
down old fellow, and to lay much of his
woe to the dour of his wife. There was
charity for his faults and sympathy for
, his sorrows, but at last it had come to
this. He was lying, sorely injured, in
the hospital, and there were times when
be was apparently delirious.
At such times, said Mn. (lance she
alone could manage him; and she urged,
that no other nurse could do more than
excite or irritate him. To the unapeaka-
Lis grist of little Kate she, too, was
driven from ;be sufferer's bedside and
forbidden to come into the room ezoept
when her mother gave permisoos.
Chaney had originally wen carried into
the general ward with the os. •r pat ems
but the hospital steward two days _f `-
wards told the surgeon that the patient
moaned and cried so at night that the
other sick men could not sleep, and of-
fered to gfve up a little roam in his own
part of the building. The burly doctor
looked surprised at this on
the tart of the steward, who was a man
tenacious of every perquisite and one
who had made much complaint about
the crowded condition of the hospital
wards and small rooms ever sinse the
frozen soldiers had come in. All the
same the doctor asked for no explana-
tion, but gladly availed himself of the
steward's offer. Clancy was moved to
this little room adjoining the steward's
quarters forthwith, sad Mrs. Clancy was
satisfied.
Another thing had happened to excite
remark and a good deal of it. Nothing
sheers of eternal damnation was Mrs.
('lance's frantic sentence on the bead of
her unlucky spouse the night of the fire,
when she was the central figure of the
picture, and when hundreds of witnesses
to her words were grouped around.
Correspondingly had she called down
the blessings of the Holy Virgin and all
the saints upon the man who rescued
and returned to her that precious packet
of money. Everybody heard her, and it
was out of the question for her to re-
tract. N , from within an
hour after Clancy's admission to the
hospital not another word of the kind
escaped her lips. She was all patience
and pity with the injured man, and she
shunned all allusion to his preserver and
her I - . The surgeon had been
called away, after doing all in his power
to snake Clancy comfortable -he was
needed elsewbere-and only two or three
suldirrr and a hospital nurse still re -
'mined by his bedside, where Mrs.
Clancy and little Kate were drying their
tears and receiving consolation from the
steward's wife. The doctor had men-
tioned a name as he went away, and it
was seen that Clancy was striving to ask
a question. Sergt. Nolan bent down:
"Lie quiet. Clancy, me boy; you must
be quiet. tor you'll move the bandages."
"Who did he say was burned? Who
was he going to see?" gasped the suf-
ferer.
"The new lieutenant, Chancy -him
that pulled ye out. He's a good one, and
it's Mrs. Clancy that'll tell ye the sante."
"Tell him what?' said she., turning
about in sudden interest.
"About the lieutenant's pulling him
out of the fire and saving your money."
"Indeed yes! The blessing of all the
saints be upon his beautiful head,
and"—
"But who was it? What was his name,
say?" vehemently interrupted Clancy,
half raising himself upon his elbow, end
groaning with the effort. "What was
his name? I didn't see him."
To as .heel,
Whas Is I.?
To these who have never used Wil-
son's Wild Cherry, we beg to explain
hat it is a for the cure of
Coughs, Cilds, Croup. Bronchitis,
Whooping Cough, L ,.. of Voice, and
kindred diseases, which has been in suc-
cessful use fee twenty yews. It is a
purely tegst.ble medicine in the form of
Trump, pleasant to the taste, and gives
mmediste relief to sufferers from do-
sses et the throat, chest and lungs
Wil. pi's Wild Cherry never disappoints.
Try it ter yourself and flimsily. Sold by
Il druggists. Ia
•edsea1 Vetoes( Site• Clothes.
"Give her some *tensing elotbea`'esid
shrewd physician to a mother who
sine Sc, hiss in anxiety about her yoe.g
&ashler, who manifested an alarming
ndutterance to the charms of society, sad
ho, though almost twenty, was sot yet
et of the shy and seekersrd hobble -de-
ny period of her life. A trip to Paris
rid some Worth seems followed A few
months later the young girl sew not of
he most brilliant, clever sod well poised
yowls women in the sty, where sash
els were not few -New York Sun.
That tired d.Mhtated feeling, en pe
cellar to Spring, intimates depraved
Mond. It". is the time to prove the
bsttofleiat effeste of Ayers Sarsaparilla.
cleanses the system, restores Oriel
s.ergy, sr d Mimes sew life ares Hoe
Stec every Ghee of the brig.
a